


you always make me so breathless

by EllaYuki



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: (again. only in chapter 4), (in chapter 4), Developing Relationship, Engagement, Established Relationship, Flirting, Fluff, Humor, Long-Distance Relationship, Longing, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Phichimetti Week, Pining, Post-Canon, Romance, Soulmates, canon AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-09 10:58:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11667747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllaYuki/pseuds/EllaYuki
Summary: chris, phichit, and snapshots of an improbable romance





	1. day 1 - firsts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> phichit and chris share a first kiss at the after-party at worlds.

the first time they kiss, it’s a giggly thing, more huffed breath and bumping noses than actual lips and tongues, but it’s perfect in its own way.

they’re at worlds in boston, having just placed an honorable fourth and sixth, and while for one of them it’s a bit disappointing, the other is just happy to have come in as high as he has, considering the competition.

the banquet had been a bit boring, despite the best of efforts, but the unofficial after party up in victor and yuuri’s suite is in full swing and a hell of a lot more interesting, and somehow, it just happens.

chris is already out on the balcony, enjoying the chilly night air, when phichit joins him, wide smile on his face, and phone in his hand.

‘why are you out here all by your lonesome?’ he asks, giggling, and leans his shoulder into chris’. ‘we boring you?’ he teases.

chris looks at him from the corner of his eye, and takes a sip of his drink.

‘hardly,’ he says, ‘but it was getting a bit too…  _hot_  in there, i think. i needed some air.’

phichit looks back over their joined shoulders towards the room where victor, yuuri and a few more skaters are more than half naked, dancing and making out and not caring about the world outside their little bubble. he has to laugh a bit.

(he’s been right in the middle of that himself, enjoying the hell out of it, but being out here, just standing here with chris, feels a lot better.)

‘i’d have thought you’d be right in the middle of that,’ he says, looking back up at chris, chin on his shoulder, eyes half-lidded and full of mirth. ‘you usually are.’

a corner of chris’ mouth quirks up a bit. ‘maybe i’m feeling a bit too old for that.’

phichit snorts at that. ‘you do know victor’s older than you and he’s right in the middle there, right?’

‘yes, but he has yuuri.’

‘and you have me!’ the exclamation comes a bit too loud, a bit too rushed, a bit too sudden. it surprises them both. the silence that follows is almost deafening for a few seconds. a dark flush spreads hot on phichit’s cheeks. ‘umm…’

then they both start laughing, amused, maybe a tiny bit embarrassed (phichit more than chris, obviously), and they hang off of each other. they laugh so hard that their knees buckle and they slide down to the floor, still leaning against each other.

and they don’t stop even when chris threads fingers into phichit’s dark hair and pulls him in, don’t stop even as they try to swallow each other’s breaths, don’t stop even when victor barges in and squeals.

they kiss and they laugh and it’s sweet and kind of perfect.

phichit’s embarrassment over his outburst fades the more they kiss, the better he settles into chris’ arms, the more they get lost in their own little bubble, forgetting the party and the rest of the world for a while.

(he does get embarrassed again the next day when yuuri takes his well-earned turn to tease his best friend.

but he can’t help grinning from ear to ear, a little bit proud.

because a night spent kissing the hell out of christophe giacometti, no matter what might happen from here on out, is a night well spent, in his opinion, and he has zero regrets.)


	2. day 2 - domesticity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> on pets, and which is better in general, cats or hamsters (and chris realising he wants more of what he and phichit currently share).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more based on the 'pets' prompt but with a tiny dash of 'nicknames' mixed in, too.

he places the back of a hand dramatically to his forehead, eyes closed, and a woeful look on his face, and bemoans dramatically.

‘oh, whatever shall i do? however shall i live? i am wounded! wounded, i tell you!'

chris has to raise an eyebrow at that, amused. 'now you're exaggerating, sweetheart,' he says good-natured. ‘you know a person’s taste in pets is not up for dabate.’

phichit moans again, flopping onto his side where he’s lying down on the bed, arms flopping up above his head. chris shifts against the wall next to him, his thigh a hand’s width away from phichit’s hands. ‘yes, but the fact that hamsters are cuter than cats is also not up for debate. you know it, i know it, everyone knows it.’

chris rolls his eyes at him, buries a hand in phichit’s hair and ruffles it fondly. phichit yelps but doesn’t pull away, laughs instead through the light flush spreading on his cheeks to his ears.

‘that’s a matter of opinion, and  _you_  know it,’ he says, voice low. that blush is always too adorable, and chris loves seeing it, seeing it spread and intensify depending on how he talks or what he does.

‘yuuri would agree with me on this,’ phichit says with a cute little pout, and chris wants to bite at it.

‘yuuri is a dog lover, victor, too for that matter, their opinions hardly count in this.’

‘yes but yuuri loves my hamsters.’

‘yuuri had to live with you and your hamsters for how many years? three? four? i think the most he’ll admit to is liking your hamsters because they’re yours.’

phichit harrumphs at that, and buries his face into the bedding.

‘…whatever, they’re still better than cats.’

chris has to shake his head fondly at the petulance in his voice. it’s too cute.

‘you’ll change your mind once you’ve met my darling.’

phichit nuzzles his face down into the sheets, moves closer until the top of his head is pressed tight against chris’ thigh, but doesn’t look up.

‘…thought i was your darling,’ he mumbles, and chris barely understands him. and he almost melts at the cuteness of it all. (seriously, he never thought he’d ever manage to abuse the word ‘cute’, especially in relation to a single person, yet here he is.)

he bends down, carding gentle fingers through soft hair, and places a light kiss to it.

‘don’t worry, mon petit, you are,’ he says quietly in the small space between them, and it sounds more like a confession than anything he’s ever said in the past few months since this started.

phichit finally turns to face him, face red, and bottom lip caught between his teeth. there’s a small, almost tremulous smile on his face.

and chris realises that, despite everything, they haven’t actually spoken much about what this thing between them is, what their feelings really are, where they want it to go. they’ve only seen each other a handful of times since that first kiss in boston, kissed and touched and had some harmless fun, but they’ve never had time to just… be together like this, a quiet moment away from the rest of the world, where the giddiness of meeting again turned into something calm and soft and soothing.

he decides that he likes this just as much as he likes the fun times. it’s different, less rushed, and it feels like they don’t have to go their separate ways again in a day or two.

he pulls phichit up against him, pulls his head under his own chin, and takes a deep breath.

‘anyway,’ he says, before words they’re not yet ready for escape his lips, ‘my cat is beautiful and you’ll fall in love with her the moment you meet her, you’ll see.’

phichit doesn’t say anything for a second. then, as he finally relaxes against chris, he asks, quiet, shy, ‘and when will that be?’

and chris starts making tentative plans for christmas. 


	3. day 3 - summer: social media

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which they try to one-up each other in embarrassing, or just not so picture-perfect photos of each other (because they’re not competitive only on the ice).

 

they have something like a contest for a few months.

it’s silly. they’re both addicted to social media, they both post daily on different sites (though they coincidentally both prefer Instagram to twitter or anything else)., and they both usually make sure to be impeccable in whatever they post.

hell, even drunken antics or weird bets-inspired photos look a bit too artistic, in the opinion of their respective friends.

so, naturally, phichit decides the internet needs to see chris in all his embarrassing glory from time to time. because reasons.

they meet a few times throughout the summer, for victor’s ice show in japan, for a joint vacation in russia to visit their respective best friends, for the two weeks chris decides to spend in thailand just before training for the oncoming season is set to start.

so the week they’re together in japan, phichit takes it upon himself to catch chris at the most random times, half-awake on his way to breakfast, half-tangled in his skating costume and ready to fall over, mid-sneeze, snoozing with his cheek against a wall and his mouth open. drunk off his ass with victor and yuuri.

it takes chris a while to notice, because phichit never tags him directly, busy with skating and his own artsy photos and charming the pants off of phichit and just having a good, relaxing time with his friends.

but he does, eventually, right after he’s boarded his plane back to switzerland. he takes the time to look through all of phichit’s posts and is caught between feeling annoyed at the undignified photos his kind-of-boyfriend posted of him, and feeling amused and plotting his revenge.

and after that, it’s more or less all-out war, trying to out-do one another, and in the weeks between japan and russia, they post more or less all the incriminating photos of each other they have on their phones on their phones.

~

the day they finally meet again, chris sees phichit first, making whiny faces at his phone and being all-around adorably silly.

the photo is up before phichit even finishes whining about whatever it is he’s whining about, captioned and tagged ‘found something whiny but cute in marseille @phichit+chu #stpeterburg #notsoflawlessnow #lookatthatbuttonnose’.

chris stays a bit away, vantage point perfect for him to see the moment phichit notices the notification and sees the photo. he films it as phichit makes yet another face, nose turned up in something like dismay and then looks up and around himself. he films the way his face lights up and then he covers it up with a huffy expression the moment he finally catches sight of chris and more or less charges at him.

the video is only captioned ‘got found out by the cute angry hamster’.

phichit takes his revenge later that evening phichit a photo of chris with spaghetti sauce all around his mouth. which is followed by a short video of phichit snorting with laughter.

the video of chris snoring gets the most notifications, though more for the fact that they’re obviously sleeping in the same room, which has their fans in a bit of an uproar (mostly because they’ve been somewhat private about some aspects of their relationship).

yuuri puts a stop to the whole thing (and wins their little contest without even trying, much to their annoyance) when he posts a photo of the both of them drunkenly hanging off each other, sloppy, sleepy, and grinning like fools in his and victor’s living room.

phichit tries to argue that it doesn’t count, that it’s not fair, ‘wow yuuri, you don’t even really use social media, how can you do this to your best friend, you’re supposed to be on my side!!’. 

but yuuri just shrugs, a bit smug, and takes another pic of phichit’s woeful face. 


	4. day 3 - au - soulmates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> phichit has never really thought much about soulmates in general, much less his own. until one day, yuuri makes him think about it, and about whether chris might or might not be his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n: the only au thing about it is the whole soulmates thing, other than that, it can be read as just another part of the fic so far. the soulmate thing won’t appear in the next instalments.

he’s never really thought much of the little symbol on his hip, the little green thing the size of his thumbprint that looks like a mountain, or the great buddha in the ang thong province. it’s just there, like his birthmarks on his shoulder and on his thigh.

sure, he’s always known what it meant, that somewhere out there in the world, there is a person solely for him, that theoretically completes him like no one else in the world. he knows that that person has an identical mark on their own hip.

and quite honestly, as much as he loves a good romance, he’s always thought he has better things to do with his life than wait around or go in search for that so called other half. there are awesome photos to take, there are amazing programs to skate, there are medals to win and friends to have fun with and a name to bring to his country’s figure skating scene.

if love comes along the way, so be it, he’ll welcome it. but until then, he has better things to do.

~

he and chris have been more or less going out for almost a year, though it’s mostly been dates and heavy make-outs and teasing kisses and the rare touches, but never more than that, on the rare occasions they could see each other in person, and honestly phichit has not once thought about the whole soulmate thing, has been enjoying their relationship too much to wonder about such a pesky little thing.

it’s not until the four continents championships in south korea that he gives it any thought. he’s having drinks with yuuri the day before the competition, just the two of them. he’s a little giddy to skate and hopefully win, a lot giddy because chris had promised to come spend the week with him, although he should be training for worlds.

(chris had said he wants to spend his birthday with him – and their friends, but mostly him – so phichit wasn’t going to argue against it too much.)

‘what do you mean you’ve found your soulmate??’ they hear suddenly, high-pitched and loud, and both their heads snap towards the table where two girls (phichit thinks they’re ice dancers, but he’s not sure) talk in loud whispers. one of them is bright red, looking around, making sure they’re not bothering anyone, while the other is trying to get her to spill the details.

yuuri chuckles fondly at them, which, of course, catches phichit’s attention.

‘don’t tell me you’re a sucker for the whole soulmate thing, yuuri,’ he says, though he more or less knows the answer to that. yuuri looks pointedly at the glass of orange juice, cheeks red, and doesn’t say anything. phichit rolls his eyes. ‘of course you do. i forgot, you’ve always wondered what it would be like to have victor as your soulmate.’

yuuri gets even redder at that. phichit raises an eyebrow.

‘umm…’ he says, ‘actually, i don’t have to wonder anymore.’

and of course yuuri kept something as big as this from him. he could strangle his best friend sometimes. ‘you mean to tell me you found out victor’s actually your soulmate and you didn’t tell me about it???’

‘well, you never seemed interested in the whole notion of it, so i figured you wouldn’t care about it one way or another,’ he defends himself, and, well, he kind of has a point. still.

‘so he has the same gold half-snowflake just over his butt like you do?’

yuuri just nods, and sips from his drink. they fall into a companionable silence for a few minutes, until yuuri takes a deep breath, and phichit has to brace himself.

‘what about you?’ yuuri asks, ‘is chris…?’

he doesn’t continue, but phichit knows exactly what he means. he shrugs, his chin propped in his palm, and stirring his tea lazily.

‘no idea,’ he says, ‘i mean, i haven’t seen chris that naked yet - shocking, i know – so i haven’t been able to check. and it’s not like it’s something you can just ask a person.’ he shurgs again. ‘maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. but i’d rather that not be an influence over what we have right now. if we are, we’ll know eventually.’

~

that is what he says to yuuri, but after that conversation, he can’t stop thinking about it, the ‘what if’ of it.

he thinks about the pros of it and the cons, and about how he can find out without outright asking about chris’ mark. about whether he’ll be disappointed if they aren’t, or if he will be if they are.

he keeps his ruminations to himself for a while, through an afternoon practice and a briefing with celestino, through meeting up with chris, and then dinner with him and yuuri and victor, through a long, thorough, post-dinner ‘missed you’ make-out session.

it’s chris who, eventually, asks what’s got him so distracted. (phichit hadn’t even noticed he  _was_  distracted.)

phichit bites his lower lip, and looks down and to the side. his perch in chris’ lap, though, means the older man can easily lift his chin up, so that their eyes can meet.

‘come now, when have you ever bashful with me? tell me what’s wrong? please?’

his voice is soft, gentle, and it drives all the fear phichit didn’t know he’s been having. he slumps forward, rests his forehead on chris’ shoulder. lets out a little laugh.

‘you’ll think it’s stupid,’ he says.

‘try me.’

phichit sighs, and decides to say screw it and get on with it.

‘i was talking with yuuri today at lunch,’ he starts. for a second, he doesn’t know how to continue, before deciding to just say it as simply as possible. ‘the topic of soulmates came up. did you know yuuri and victor are soulmates? i suspected it, but yuuri only told me today, the rat! i mean, what kind of man keeps something like that from his best friend? it’s rude-‘

‘phichit.’

it’s not until chris says his name that he realizes he’s rambling. he takes another deep breath. holds it. then.

‘yuuri asked if you and i are…’ and he can’t finish it, for some reason, though he’s sure chris knows what he means.

he does.

‘that never came up, it’s true,’ chris says lightly, though not jokingly. then, in a tone that phichit would call tentative if he didn’t know chris, he asks, ‘do you want to see my mark?’

phichti bites his lip again (he’s been doing that a lot lately, he needs to stop or he’ll ruin it), and slowly, hesitantly, nods his head. moment of truth, either they are or they aren’t.

‘move back a little,’ chris tell him, and phichit moves to sit closer to his knees rather than chest to chest as they’ve been. his heart is beating whildly in his chest, the anticipation building.

(for a few seconds, he almost wants to shut his eyes.

he doesn’t.)

and then chris raises his t-shirt a little and reaches for the waistband of his boxers and phichit’s world narrows to a small patch of skin, right under chris’ hipbone.

and to the small, green shape that might look like a mountain, might look like a buddha statue.

a sobbing laugh escapes his throat before he even realizes, and he leans forward, wraps his arms around chris’ neck and kisses him silly.

when he finally pulls back, both of them breathless and smiling like idiots, he pulls the side of his own shorts down, enough for his own mark to become visible, and he looks up at chris.

‘i guess that answers that, huh?’ he says, grinning from ear to ear. there;s something like relief coursing through his veins. he reaches a hand forward, wanting to touch the mark, hesitating at the last second. ‘can i?’ he asks, and chris takes his hand and presses it to his hip. touches phichit’s own mark with his other hand.

and it’s like a lightning bolt, like the eye of a hurricane, like the first breath of air after almost drowning.

‘soulmates, huh?’ says chris.

‘soulmates.’

‘you okay with that?’

‘more than.’ and he finds that he means it.

‘good.’

‘perfect.’

(he can’t wait to tell yuuri about it.)


	5. day 5 - celebrations: wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> victor and yuuri get married and the planning and the excitement has chris thinking about what he wants from the future. and, well, he loves surprises as much as victor does, though he might not always show it.

yuuri and victor get married almost a year and a half after getting engaged in barcelona. yuuri has won several golds (which is still a joking topic for all of those involved), and victor has finally, officially retired (much to yuuri’s resigned acceptance), and they’ve both decided it’s time for that step.

so, obviously, to the surprise of absolutely no one, phichit and chris are chosen to be their respective best men. (though, apparently, little yuri plistesky pouted and refused to talk to either of them for a week after they made the announcement.)

the first thing chris does, after he finishes his skype call with an overly excited (and overly-emotional) victor, is to call phichit.

well, he tries to, anyway, but the call won’t connect, probably because his dear boyfriend is busy talking yuuri’s ear off, already making plans and day-dreaming about it more than the actual grooms. he has to chuckle at the starry-eyed look he knows the younger man must be making right now.

eventually, he manages to get in touch with phichit, and make plans (for the parties, for the wedding itself, for the reception and everything in between). and the more time they spend planning, the more chris starts to imagine what it would be like if this were his own wedding he’s planning.

once that thought enters his head, it doesn’t leave.

~

the wedding goes off without a hitch.

the bachelor parties were a success (as in the grooms got appropriately drunk and had lots and lots of fun), the wedding ceremony was like something out of a dream, and the reception is perfect and in full-swing by the time chris finally gets a moment to pull phichit aside and kiss the breath from his lungs.

phichit goes a little bit cross-eyed in the process, his knees actually buckle, much to chris’ amusement, and by the time they separate for some proper breathing, they’re both a little hot under the collar.

( _too bad they can’t leave the party to celebrate a bit on their own,_ chris thinks.)

he takes advantage of phichit’s light-headedness to pull him out on the dancefloor for a quick spin, laughter on their lips and music in their hearts. he’s so happy.

he’s happy for their friends, who have found love when they’d lost hope that they ever would. and he’s happy for himself, because he, too, has found someone who makes his heart do quads with just a small smile or raised eyebrow.

after a few songs, he pulls phichit out on the veranda, where the night is lit with the soft glow of japanese lanterns.

phichit pulls him over to a wisteria tree that’s nestled in a corner of the garden, light purple flowers cascading beautifully and almost hiding a small bench from view. they sit there, grinning, and chris feels like a weight finally lifts off of his shoulders.

he lets out a long breath.

and bites his lip.

phichit is still admiring the flowers surrounding them, one hand reaching up towards a bundle, and chris’ heart stutters in his chest at the sight, at the soft, content look on his boyfriend’s face.

he almost shakes his head in resigned amusement when phichit suddenly turns to him, phone out and camera on.

‘let’s take a selfie! the setting’s too nice to miss out!’ he says and it’s not like chris would ever deny him anything, let alone selfies.

he leans closer, wraps an arm around phichit, and takes the phone from his hand.

‘my arm’s longer, i’ll take it,’ he says casually. phichit accepts that, and snuggles in closer, presses his cheek to chris’.

‘say cheese,’ chris instructs and adjusts the focus. moves the hand that’s been hanging over phichit’s chest, makes sure to capture the exact moment phichit sees it.

the ring it simple. a silver band with a thin, wavy line in the middle. simple, elegant.

phichit’s eyes widen almost comically at the sight of it on the phone’s screen, and he almost gets whiplash with how fast he runs his head to look at it, then at chris then back at it.

his eyes start watering.

he turns back to chris, a hand over his mouth, a smile so bit it mush hurt. and in the soft lights around them, he looks more beautiful than chris has ever seen him.

‘…is this?’ phichit asks, voice tremulous but as happy as though he’d won an international gold medal.

‘yes,’ chris says simply. ‘will you?’

the next second he’s being glomped, and they almost fall off the bench entirely if chris didn’t brace himself at the last second. his face is peppered with kisses, lots and lots of kisses and they’re both laughing ecstatically, a little bit wildly.

the moment chris manages to get enough air into his lungs to be able to form words, he prompts, ‘well? should i take that enthusiastic response as a yes?’

phichit looks at him for a second, and then another, a look on his face as serious as when he’s on the ice, ready to kick ass. and then the broad smile from earlier returns and he presses one more, sweet kiss to chris’ mouth.

‘yes. definitely.’ and then, because he wouldn’t be phichit if he didn’t, he adds, ‘now put the ring on my finger and lets post it to instagram, lets upstage yuuri and victor at their own wedding.’

chris snorts at that.

‘good luck with that, my sweet,’ he says as he slides the ring onto phichit’s finger and kisses him soundly.

~

it takes them a while to get back to the party, because they partake in a little celebration of their own.

both yuuri and victor burst into happy tears when they hear the good news, which in turn gets the two of them teary-eyed, too, and they all end up in a pile of blubbering men, unable to contain themselves and their feelings.

chris is pretty sure he’s never been happier in his life.

he’s also pretty sure he’s going to be happier and happier from here on out with his future husband by his side.


	6. day 6 - pining: long distance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> phichit hates the fact that he and chris live in different countries.

it takes them a good while.

phichit never really expected something as fairy tale-like as yuuri and victor’s relationship, he likes to think that that sort of thing is one of a kind, or at least very, very rare, but he’s also thought that, when he were to enter a serious relationship, they’d be reasonably inseparable.

obviously, when your boyfriend / fiancé is a figure skater like you, yourself are, and representing his own country halfway around the world, that is not really possible.

and phichit’s… well, he’s used to it, he guesses, though it’s still as vexing as it was at the beginning.

he misses chris in the long months when they can’t see each other. skype calls and phone calls and texting and all that doesn’t hold a candle to actually being face to face, to touch and kiss and breath in the same air.

he has wondered, a handful of times on long, lonely nights, what it would be like if he were to move to switzerland. just pack up and leave, like victor did, like yuuri did. he wonders if it would feel like a shock to the system, like when he first moved to america, or if it would feel like going home, because chris is there.

he doesn’t tell chris anything about his late-night ruminations, doesn’t want to cause him any distress or distractions in his last season, and well, he doesn’t really know what to think about it, himself. it’s just an idea, he doesn’t really want to leave his homeland again so soon, but it’s hard, the loneliness, the longing.

he’s sure chris is as lonely as he is, has said as much time and time again, but they haven’t talked about a solution yet, not even after getting engaged. phichit doesn’t know what he wants to do, and he doesn’t want to bother chris with it (which is stupid, he knows, because they’re going to get married at one point, it’s definitely something they should talk about, just maybe not over a phone or skype call), he just knows he wants them to not be so far from each other anymore.

~

they don’t have any competition together that first half of the season until the grand prix final and it’s a bit frustrating.

phichit has skate america, and he has the nhk trophy with yuuri, while chris has rostelecom and throphée de france, and then, finally, there’s the final in nagoya, where they finally, finally meet, both on and off the ice.

(phichit almost screamed when he first read the assignments.)

~

the day before the grand prix final starts, he more or less turns into a bit of a leech. or a koala.

from the moment chris steps into his line of sight, even though they’ve talked just the day before, phichit more or less attaches to him and is loath to let go, even for a moment.

he’s happy to realize chris feels just the same, hugging him and kissing him and showing exactly how much he’s been missed, how much chris would like nothing more than to never separate again.

(theu don’t go as far as they’d like, unfortunately for both of their poor nerves and aching hearts –and other parts-, because they have to skate the next day, and they have to be in top shape. phichit has never wanted to not skate more in his life.)

~

it does come up, eventually, as all things do.

victor brings it up over dinner, the night before the free skate, and somehow, phichit is a tiny bit relieved he’s not the one to breach the subject.

‘so, have you guys thought about moving in soon?’ he asks bluntly, as victor usually does. yuuri elbows him, gently, but he, too, looks curious.

phichit shrugs and looks to chris, because he doesn’t really know what to say. he wants them to live together, obviously, but it’s not only up to him. and them living in different countries, having their own lives there makes things difficult.

chris puts down his fork, chews and swallows the food in his mouth, and then props his chin on his hand. phichit looks back down at his food, takes another bite, tries to look nonchalant.

‘we haven’t talked about it yet,’ chris says, casual, but there is something undefinable in his tone of voice, ‘but since this is my final season, i was thinking of moving to thailand after worlds.’

phichit almost gets whiplash with how fast his head snaps up and to the side at that. he hadn’t expected that.

‘wha-?’ is all he can get out through his surprise.

chris just shrugs. ‘it makes sense. i won’t have to train anymore, i’ll just skate for the sake of it and for ice shows, and you won’t have to move your home rink again. it just makes sense, i think.’

and, well, it’s only a matter of course that phichit tackles him, peppers his face with kisses and hugs him until it hurts for that.

(he doesn’t even care that it ends up on someone else’s instagram first, instead of his own.

he’s too happy and too in love to care about something like that.

for now, anyway.)


	7. day 7 - free day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> planning a wedding is exhausting and headache-inducing. even more so when others insist on doing it for you.

contrary to what everybody’s been expecting, their wedding’s a simple affair, with only a handful of photos taken, and a grand total of four people in attendance.

they’ve moved in together about a month after chris’ last season ends and he officially retires, in a semi-elegant apartment in bangkok, a half hour’s walk from phichit’s home rink. it’s nothing like ether expect it to be, and somehow more than they ever thought it would.

the moment they settle down and get into something of a routine, it’s like phichit’s family takes it as their cue to start badgering about wedding dates and flower arrangements and honeymoon locations.

it’s not that they mind, they’ve been engaged for a while, they both know they’ll eventually take this step, but chris has to field as much of his future in-laws’ questions and suggestions as he can in his limited (though slowly expanding thai) while phichit is busy with practice and getting ready for the upcoming season.

it just… becomes a tiny bit too much at one point. mostly because phichit’s family is a bit too insistent (good-natured, yes, and welcoming and well-meaning, but insistent, you’d think they were marrying off a daughter), and there is no way chris will make any decisions regarding their wedding without phichit’s approval. it’s chris and phichit’s wedding, not chris and phichit’s family’s.

(phichit laughs at him when he tells him that, and makes sure he knows just how much he appreciates the fact that chris gets along so well with his family, even with the language barrier.)

~

it ends up happening as a spur of the moment thing, eventually.

a month before the grand prix series is set to start, the two of them plan an extended weekend in london with yuuri and victor, one last moment of relaxation before intensive training takes over their lives.

and it’s there, with just the four of them and a minister that they end up tying the knot.

it’s phichit who suggests it, two days into their little holiday. he and chris are lounging in bed, satiated from both good food and good sex, feeling lazy and content, and it just comes out.

‘let’s get married.’

chris turns his head to look at him, fingers threaded in phichit’s hair, carding idly.

'hmm?’ he asks, 'i think we’re a little past the proposal stage, mom petit.’ slowly, he takes phichit’s left hand in his and brings it to his lips. kisses the ring there.

phichit almost purrs at that. 'no, i mean.’ he takes a deep breath, swallows. 'let’s get married tomorrow. no more fuss over seating and flowers and who to invite. just you and me and a minister. oh, and yuuri and victor as witnesses. what do you think?’

chris has to raise an eyebrow at that.

'you planned an extremely detailed wedding for your best friend, and yet you want to elope for yours?’ the disbelief is clear in his voice. so it the amusement. because really.

phichit rubs his face into he skin of chris’ chest, kitten-like and adorable, and huffs.

'and besides,’ chris continues, because he need to point this out, 'what will your family say? they’re expecting a big wedding.’

phichit groans at that. 'exactly. if it were up to them, they’d plan every detail, whether we like it or not. i just. this is supposed to be about you and me, not us and them. don’t think i don’t know my mother’s been pestering you.’

chris lets out a huffy laugh at that, because it’s kind of true. sure, he likes phichit’s mother, but dear god, the woman is terrifying when she’s in planning mode.

'okay.’

'really?' 

the way phichit perks up, the way his eyes seem to glitter, the way happiness spreads across his face, all of it is breathtaking. and worth his mother-in-law’s wrath.

'yes.’

~

so the next evening finds them, all dressed up and looking flawless (because even if they’re eloping, there’s no reason not to do it in style), nervous but happy.

yuuri is crying joyful tears and even victor looks like he might just start on the waterworks at any moment. they’re happy for their friends.

the vows are a bit shaky, voices trembling with emotion, hands shivering as they exchange rings.

and by the time they seal it with a kiss so soft they almost burst into tears just from it, there is no doubt in either of their minds that they’ve made the right choice.

 


End file.
